Libaas (1988)

November 27, 2014 04:35 pm | Updated 04:35 pm IST

Poet and lyricist, Gulzar. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Poet and lyricist, Gulzar. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Can a dress languishing in laundry for 26 years be fit to wear? Well, in case of Gulzar’s Libaas it is not only crisp but ready to flaunt. In his inimitable unassuming yet outstanding way, its creases hold the lies we live, the truths we often dodge. Scenes that reflect deep seated emotions and vulnerabilities, scenes that make you laugh and cry at the same time. As if a thief has breached your core and put it in public. As eyes and lips betray different emotions, you want to hold him guilty for intrusion but then he beguiles with his poetry on screen. No broad strokes, no absolutes. That’s how you feel as he peels the human emotions. For the purveyors of prosaic realistically entertaining.

Showcased as the opening film of his retrospective at the ongoing 45th International Film Festival of India, it once again underlines Gulzar’s grip on human relationships and the bond he shared with R.D. Burman.

The unreleased film which has been languishing in the archives of the Directorate of Film Festivals hasn’t aged at all as far as the polish in its thought and execution is concerned. And its lyricism transcends a generation.

Having come from a small village, the complicated man-woman relationship in a big city was a matter of concern and charm for the young Gulzar and he reflected on infidelity many times in his oeuvre. Here he draws from his own story Chabiyaan which later appeared as Seema in Raavi Paar .

He often concluded marriage is not a legal bond between two souls. That live-in may be coined in this consumerist era but the thought existed in practice for many, many years.

Here it is set in the world of theatre where a dedicated theatre practitioner Sudhir expects his wife Seema to be as focused as him towards the craft. He yells at her in front of the cast if she doesn’t get her lines right. If she protests to claim her space he tells her that theatre is above both of them.

A woman of her own mind, Seema likes to be on stage and noticed but finds Sudhir’s domineering ways and indifference claustrophobic and his passion for theatre starts coming in the way of their relationship.

Nobody is a villain here as Gulzar fondly crafts his characters, their little eccentricities and foibles. Like Sudhir doesn’t know how to butter his bread and it becomes a metaphor for his personality. Or the way he likes to listen to songs while taking bath. “Hum naha rahe hain aur Ghulam Ali ga rahe hain,” a vintage Gulzar line.

Some innocuous looking lines dig deeper and indicate towards the things to come. Like the lonely Seema showing some interest in the neighbourhood boy when he comes asking for ghiya ghis , a kitchen device to grate bottle guard. One of the few Indian directors who tried to understand what a woman wants with some success, Gulzar clears quite a few cobwebs here.

Sudhir and Seema enact Hayavadan , Adhe Adhure , Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai and don’t realize when they become characters in real life. She feels he is ignoring her and sees her only as one of his heroines in the play. He responds more to pre-recorded voices than her wife. The film was made in the pre-internet era but is not too far from what Spike Jonze’s “Her” indicated last year. Anyway, Sudhir feels she doesn’t know what she wants out of life. But does he? At one point, he asks his fellow actor in jest, why do men have to marry girls?

Utpal Dutt who plays an aged out of work actor in the film brings us the ringside view when he says early in the film, “Don’t they get bored playing the same characters at home and on stage.” Through the plays within the film Gulzar conveys that extra marital relations are not a post-modernist concern. They even existed in our mythology.

And then he quietly twists the knife within. When the lines that you enact with such control on stage become disturbingly real, it becomes hard to act. One day Sudhir’s friend T.K. walks into his life and Seema finds in him the man she was looking for. Or is it just a miasma as Sudhir calls him as just one of those fads of her. However, Seema finds in T.K. somebody who puts her first and not some art in his scheme of life. Gulzar smartly explains the difference between the two men through a scene where Sudhir could not fix the tap in the kitchen for many days and T.K manages to do it effortlessly. Again a metaphor for what women look for in a complete man can’t reside in one body.

But the most potent scene is where Sudhir confronts T.K. and Seema by telling them the story of a fictional Mukherjee. An accomplished actor enacting his own condition and how he chokes in between and confronts Seema. An evocative scene, no doubt, but the way Gulzar handles it leaves you gasping for breath. It is so well written and enacted, especially by Naseer that even if you put it on the audio cassette and listen you won’t miss the visuals much.

Gulzar doesn’t say as much but Raj Babbar doesn’t seem to be his original choice for the role of T.K. “He was close to the producer,” this is all he allows to slip through. Babbar is said to be uncomfortable in the ‘Mukherjee scene’. Any actor would be.

When Seema shifts with T.K., Gulzar quietly tells us it is not easy to let go of the past. Not through some sermons but everyday situations like Seema inadvertently sends the doctor to Sudhir. And of course R.D. Burman’s songs particularly Khamosh sa afsaana paani pe likha hota , captures the emotional upheaval.

Apart from the main plot, Gulzar deals with the issues of aging actors and their ego which he says is his tribute to actors of silent era. He also brings in the subject of lack of new plays, a problem that still persists, through a satirical scene with Annu Kapoor playing a playwright who has written an absurd play about two blind men and a cat in a dark room. These are interesting asides that help in building up to the crux. Shot largely at his friend Rahi Masoom Raza’s house, there is no dressing up of ambience, no choreography of songs.

This is a territory that Naseeruddin Shah relishes and he literally lives Sudhir on screen but it is Shabana who has got the most complex role and she emerges as the tour de force of the narrative. It is through her that Gulzar peels the layers and be it the vulnerability or sensuality or for that matter the confusion in between Shabana lends transparency to the conflicted character. At places, particularly the end reminds of Ijaazat which handles the same subjects with Naseer playing Shabana’s role and Gulzar says what he could not say openly in Libaas , he said it few years later in Ijaazat . That sometimes just a waft of moist air is enough to scar the soul. Sili hawa chhoo gayi, Sila badan chhil gaya .

Genre: Social drama

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